Deceived
by R. O. Knight
Summary: Story takes place after the events of the film - After Clint Barton returns from a 2 month long secret mission, Bruce Banner suspects he may not be who he says he is. Later, he learns of the Impostor's devious plot to use the Hulk for a sinister purpose.
1. Vote of Confidence

June 1st – S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier – Africa, Somewhere Over The Northern Congo Region

The main bridge of the Helicarrier buzzed with activity as dozens of shield agents scurried about gathering and relaying new Intel from one place to the next. All this took place, of course, under the ever-watchful eye of S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury.

Fury stood at the forefront of the bridge looking over several data screens, all projected out from a nearby computer console, while his earpiece hummed with the sounds of several different voices. To anyone else that alone would be enough to drive a sane person completely mad.

Fury had to listen carefully and prioritize each new bit of information, and then formulate a response based on level of importance and relevance in relation to the situation at hand.

"Does anyone down there have eyes on the bomb yet?" Fury spoke above the rest of the noise and chatter that filled the bridge. "Stark?"

"Sorry Nick." Tony replied over the radio transmitters. "Kinda have my hands full at the moment." The billionaire inventor replied over the sound of repulsor fire. "I'll have to get back to you in just a-"

There was a moment of pause on the line, and Fury listened intently waiting for Tony Stark to come back on. "Stark, you there?"

"Oh crap." Stark was heard saying. "Um, yeah—can ya give me just a minu-no no no!" A loud thwack sounded over the radio, and Fury had to turn his head slightly, wincing from the sting he felt in his ears.

"Stark!" Fury barked loudly then. "Captain Rogers, can you assist Iron Man?" the S.H.I.E.L.D. Director tried.

"No can do sir." Rogers replied. "I've got troubles of my own to deal with right now."

"Damnit." Fury swore rather loudly. "Agent Romanoff, please tell me you can do better?" Nick Fury fumed at the woman he considered to be one of his best agents.

There was only silence over the radio waves for what seemed like a long moment, but then the former Russian spy finally answered. "Sorry about that sir. I'm approaching the device now."

Fury closed his eyes, and let go of a short sigh of relief. "Hallelujah." He breathed. "Talk to me."

"It's unlike anything I've seen before." Natasha Romanoff relayed to her boss. "It looks like some sort of amplified EMP device." She continued. "This is highly complicated equipment sir. I'm sending you some pictures now."

Fury pressed a button on his nearby console, and within just a few seconds a new set of information flashed up before his eye(s). He quickly glanced over the pictures of the device, and found his blood pressure beginning to rise even more rapidly than before.

"You're right, this doesn't look too good at all." Fury said at last. "Think you can disarm it?"

"Negative sir. And the timer's showing seven minutes and counting until detonation."

"Shit!" Fury swore angrily. "Not enough time for an effective evacuation."

"No sir." The female agent responded in agreement. "What's our next move?"

At the back of the room the two sliding doors suddenly opened wide to allow Bruce Banner entry onto the bridge. He walked quickly towards Nick Fury with certain purpose, despite Agent Maria Hills' insistence that he wait a moment.

"Dr. Banner, please. Director Fury is quite busy-" Agent Hill tried again.

"I have to speak with him now. Trust me on this—it can't wait." Banner said, pushing forward past the female S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent.

"Fury!" Banner called as he walked up on the Director. "We need to talk."

"Not now, Doctor." Fury replied calmly, without looking back. "In case you haven't noticed, we're kind of in the middle of something right now." He added.

"Its important." Banner insisted. "If you'll just listen I-"

"I'm trying to defuse a bomb here, Banner, so I would really appreciate a lit-" Fury started.

Bruce Banner closed his eyes, and tried to stop his own rising blood pressure from reaching a critical level. He snapped. "Its about the bomb!" He nearly screamed. It was ultimately a miracle that he didn't hulk out right then and there.

Everyone in the room stopped, and seemed to stare across at the scientist standing just behind Director Fury. Bruce immediately forced himself to breathe, and think happy peaceful thoughts.

Fury finally turned to face Banner. "You have my attention, Doctor." Fury said coolly. "Please…continue."

Banner opened his eyes and looked at Fury for a moment before speaking. Fury waited patiently for a couple of seconds before speaking up himself. "Anytime now."

"R-Right." Banner said at last. "I've been monitoring things from the lab, and just a few moments ago I picked up a tiny radiation signature emanating from the bomb. It's Gamma."

"Gamma." Fury repeated aloud.

"Yeah." Banner replied. "I believe it may be powered by gamma radiation. The effects of its detonation may be felt a lot farther than originally thought."

Fury took a brief moment to process the new information. "You think you can disarm it, Doctor?" Fury asked.

"Yeah, I think so. But I'd need to be on the ground to do it." Banner said somewhat confidently, as he ran a hand through his dark, wavy locks.

"I don't know. What about the _other guy_? Where does he fit in?" Fury asked understandably curious as to the good doctor's current mental state.

"He won't be a problem." Banner replied.

"Sir, I think we should give Doctor Banner a chance to at least try." Natasha Romanoff said over the radio.

"Alright. Hill, get Banner down to ground level—on the double." Fury barked commandingly. "Romanoff, what are your coordinates?"

"Thanks you." Banner replied quickly, before turning to follow Agent Hill out to the flight deck.

The female S.H.I.E.L.D. agent relayed her exact coordinates to her boss. "Once he's on the ground, Agent Romanoff, he's your responsibility." Fury said through his earpiece to the female agent on the other end.

"Copy that." Romanoff replied. "I'll be awaiting his arrival."

Fury then turned back to his data screens, and pressed a switch on the nearby console. The switch allowed Fury to speak where everyone patched into his radio frequency could hear him. "Everyone listen up! Ground team, Doctor Banner's headed your way. He thinks he can disarm the bomb. He needs room and time." Fury spouted over the radio waves.

"That really a good idea sir?" Captain Rogers asked over the radio. "I mean not that I don't trust him, but with so many civilians inhabiting the outlying areas-"

"-Yeah, I'm gonna have to side the Captain on this one, Nick." Stark said, cutting in on the conversation just a second later.

"I am well aware of the risks." Fury replied firmly. "He says he's got it under control, and I'm inclined to believe him. Also, given the circumstances at hand, I don't think we have much of a choice in the matter."

"Understood, sir." Captain Rogers responded quickly.

"If you say so." Stark added afterward.

"But," Fury started again after having quickly made an executive decision on a related matter. "If he should fail—everyone will have a one minute warning to clear the area as quickly as possible."

"Oh, That makes me feel so much better." Stark remarked aloud.

"Can it Stark!" Fury snapped.

Agent Maria Hill brought the jet down easily in a small clearing just several yards away from the coordinates provided, earlier, by Agent Romanoff. The wheels never actually touched the ground though, as Agent Hill kept the small jet in hover mode.

"Okay, Banner. This is where you get off!" the yelled into the back of the craft. Banner nodded, and then made his way down towards the rear access hatch.

Agent Hill flipped a switch on her console, and a few seconds later the rear hatch opened and a ramp descended to the ground below. Banner quickly made his way down, and then hopped out onto the ground.

Then he watched as the hatch closed, and then the jet hovered upwards, did an about-face, and then hurried off back to the Helicarrier.

Just as Banner began to head off towards the bomb location, a mortar shell of some unknown kind sped by directly over his head. He quickly dropped to the ground, using his arms and hands to cover his head.

_Oh, this was such a bad idea. Bruce, what the hell were you thinking!_ He could feel his blood pressure steadily rising, and his breathing begin to accelerate—both were bad signs for the good doctor.

"Bruce!" a familiar voice called out to him. He looked up after a second or so, and saw Natasha Romanoff hurrying towards him. "Bruce, get up!" she called out once again.

Bruce pulled himself up to his feet again, and forced himself towards the waiting female agent. "Natasha." He said her name as he approached her.

Just then one of the weird half-cyborg/half-organic creatures that the other heroes had been battling for the last several minutes, came charging out from the opposite side of the clearing. It headed right towards Banner and Romanoff running at full speed.

"Look out!" called a familiar, friendly voice. Then a red, blue, and white blur whizzed through the air, and struck the creature in the back toppling it to the ground just feet from where Banner and Agent Romanoff stood. The circular object then rebounded off a nearby, hardened tree, and then headed right back to where it had come from—Captain America himself.

Romanoff nodded in the soldier's direction. "Thanks for the assist Captain!" she yelled across the clearing.

"Anytime ma'am." Captain Roger's replied, before turning to slam his fist into the face of another oncoming enemy.

"Come on!" Romanoff said, as she grabbed Banner's sleeve then, and hauled him off towards the tiny building where she'd found the bomb just moments before.

Several seconds later, Bruce knelt in front of the device, and took a brief moment to look it over before proceeding forward. He was somewhat impressed by what he saw before him, but his resolve remained unshaken.

"We've got less than three minutes left." Natasha told him as she stood by the nearby entrance watching for any enemies who might come to stop their disarming of the bomb. "Really think you can stop it?"

"Piece of cake." Bruce said, wiping a few beads of sweat from his brow. "And thanks, by the way." He added, without looking up from his work.

"For what?" Natasha asked.

"The vote of confidence with Fury." He replied, chancing a glance at the red-haired beauty.

Of all the people who resided on the Helicarrier on a regular basis, none had proven to be in Bruce's corner more often than Natasha Romanoff. Sure, they'd originally gotten off to a rather rocky start in the beginning; but since then they'd become almost best friends in a way.

Natasha Romanoff was usually quick to come to Bruce Banner's aid in any situation that might arise. More often than not, said situations involved certain jarheads picking on the mild mannered scientist trying to see how far they could push him before he reacted (if you catch my drift).

The ex-Russian spy had seen Bruce for what he really was, a tortured soul, much like herself—from that moment on a connection was formed that could only grow and grow. This was especially true during the many absences of her only other real confidant, Clint Barton a.k.a. Hawkeye.

Bruce was, by now, halfway down into the inner workings of the device, and from all appearances the pressure was beginning to work against him. "Come on, come on. I know you're in here somewhere." He muttered under his breath, as a few more beads of sweat meandered their way down over his forehead.

"How's it coming over there Bruce?" Natasha asked, looking from the open doorway to where Bruce was squatting on the floor near the bomb.

"Give me time." Bruce hissed quietly, without really realizing it. "I'm almost there." He licked his lips a little in anticipation of his works completion. "Ah, almost got it."

"Less than a minute fifty to go, Bruce." Natasha called out over the deafening noises sounding from outside the small building.

"Damnit." Bruce suddenly swore aloud. A red light on top of the device began to blink wildly as a dull whining sound followed. "No, no, no."

"What happened?" Natasha asked, looking back worriedly at her scientist friend.

"I screwed up." Bruce admitted quickly. "There was a backup relay set within the device's main circuitry…its going into overload countdown." He explained.

"What!" Natasha gasped in shock. "Can you stop it!"

Bruce snapped his head around to face the female agent, and the look on his own face betrayed just how close he was to losing his cool completely. "I'm trying!" he hissed vehemently.

"Bruce, breathe." Natasha said at once. "Think, calm. Serene. Peaceful." She prodded him.

"I…I c-can't." Bruce stammered through gritted teeth. His fists went white-knuckled as he clutched at the side of the device. "He-He wants out."

"Bruce. Breathe, think." She pressed him further.

With some further prodding, Bruce finally came down from his elevated stress level, and within just a few seconds found a solution to the problem at hand. "I've got it." He exclaimed, as his hands quickly went to work once more.

"Romanoff," Nick Fury's voice echoed out through her earpiece. "Status report!"

"We're close sir." She replied.

"We're running out of time here, Agent!" he reminded her.

"I know. We just need a few seconds more." She insisted.

"There!" Bruce exclaimed once more. Just then the whole device suddenly powered down on the spot. Bruce rocked backwards a little bit, and fell flat on his backside. Soon afterward he breathed a sigh of relief, and then shot a small grin up at the red-haired beauty still standing just a few feet away.

"See, piece of cake." He remarked somewhat smugly.

Natasha rolled her eyes at the scientist, and gave a slight shake of her head in his direction.

…TBC…


	2. Lonely Man

_It was late the next evening, and Bruce had spent most of the day down in his lab aboard the Helicarrier. Fury had asked him to run diagnostics on the body of one of the creatures they'd brought back from their battle the day before._

_Bruce tinkered deeper and deeper within the complex bodily structure of the creature, and the more he discovered the more interested he became. "Fascinating." He murmured aloud, as he examined some kind of organic neural circuitry imbedded within the spinal region of the body. "Simply incredible." He added a few seconds later._

_The sliding doors at the far end of the room closed unexpectedly. Bruce had not even heard them open. "Why is it you've never said that about me?" a familiar voice asked from across the room._

_Bruce looked up, and watched the sexy Natasha Romanoff walk towards him. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, which was very different from the seriously intimidating uniform she usually wore._

"_Didn't realize I needed too." Bruce replied calmly, with a tiny grin playing at the corners of his mouth. "In my world its called a given." He added._

_Natasha rolled her eyes at the dark-haired man. "That's the problem with you brainiac-types, you can be so clueless sometimes." She said with a sigh. "Women like to be appreciated—audibly, physically…not telepathically."_

_Bruce chuckled to himself. "And here I thought you were into kinky stuff." He said humorously._

"_Telepathy is not kinky." Natasha threw back pointedly._

"_If you say so." He replied. "Though, I know of a few people who might disagree." _

_There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them. Bruce did finally back away from his work, and laid his tools down. He turned to face Natasha fully, and folded his arms across his chest._

"_So, now that the witty banter is out of the way—Something on your mind?" he asked._

"_What do you mean?" Natasha asked in response to Bruce's previous question, as she folded her hands behind her back._

"_It's the only reason you ever come down here," He pointed out. "When something's bothering you."_

_Natasha shook her head at Bruce. "You know that's not true. It's not the only reason I come down here."_

_Bruce scoffed a little bit. "Yeah well, it's the only logical, rational reason." _

"_Bruce, there's never been any logic to us." Natasha pointed out quietly._

_This was as true a fact as any other in the known universe. Their relationship had started on a weird note, and had continued to progress on that same weird note. It had all started after Clint Barton started seeing another S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent, and unknowingly made Natasha feel alienated._

"_Honestly, there shouldn't even be an us." Bruce said pointedly, with a shake of his head._

_Natasha stepped forward, and leaned in toward Bruce. She planted a tender kiss against his lips, and he soon returned the gesture. Moments later Bruce began slowly guiding the two of them backwards until he had Natasha pinned against the edge of a nearby table._

_He could feel his pulse racing, and his heartbeat quickening. His thoughts began to run together, and a misty veil started to settle over the whole of his mind._

"_Bruce," Natasha whispered against his ear. "I want this." There was almost a pleading tone to her voice when she spoke._

_Bruce snapped back into reality, and suddenly realized just how far he'd let her go this time. "No," he snapped, pushing her back a bit. His breathing came out heavy and almost labored._

_Natasha stood staring back at Bruce silently. Her eyes locked longingly on his. "Bruce," she tried._

"_No. We shouldn't. We can't-It's just too dangerous. We don't know what might happen if I get-" he started._

_Natasha leaned forward and pressed her lips against his once again. "I trust you." She whispered against his lips._

_Bruce crushed his lips back against hers once again, and gave in to everything he felt for the woman in his arms at that moment. "You have no idea what you're getting yourself into." He told her quietly._

"_Neither do you. So we're even." She replied softly._

_Bruce. Oh Yes. Don't stop, Please…Wait, Bruce stop. Bruce, you-you're hurting me. Bruce! Bruce!_

Startled out of his dream-like sequence, Bruce jumped back away from the table he'd been leaning against. He blinked several times, clearing away the foggy haze, and did a quick visual check of his surroundings.

"It's alright. It's just me."

"Natasha?"

She nodded in his direction. "Now just take it easy. No need to lose control." She said in a soothing tone. "Just…_breathe_."

Bruce realized then how rapidly his heart was beating, and how quick his breathing had become. He closed his eyes once again, and let out a long, slow breath. He immediately felt a drop in his vitals. That was a good thing.

"Dreaming again?" Natasha said with, deducing the reason for his overreaction to her approach only moments before.

Bruce didn't say anything, just surveyed his surroundings as flashes of the dream-like encounter played through his mind. He cringed at the last few scenes that he saw, and how gruesome and horrifying it was.

"Bruce?"

"What?" Bruce snapped his head up to face Natasha.

"Was it the one where you and I-?" she guessed with a slight smug grin playing at the corners of her lips.

Bruce blushed a little bit, and hoped that in the dim light of the lab she could not tell. He'd known that telling her about some of his recurring dreams/nightmares would be a bad idea—he just hadn't known how bad.

"I should be getting back to work." He ran one hand through his hair, and pointed the other towards the occupied steel slab setting between them.

"So, how long are you planning to stay down here…with that?" she asked, nodding towards the steel slab and the body currently lying atop its cold surface.

"As long as it takes I guess." He replied, as he reached for a small scalpel setting on a nearby tool tray. "Working keeps me calm, most of the time, which is a good thing. Two months aboard this flying death trap, and the anxiety of it is starting to get to me."

"The way you keep yourself locked away down here, I'm surprised you _haven't_ knocked out a wall or two." Natasha remarked.

"Again, that's what I'm hoping to avoid by staying down here—alone."

Natasha found herself looking deep into Bruce's chocolate-colored eyes, and as always what she saw behind them saddened her greatly. She finally shook her head lightly at him.

"Bruce, you have to let it go. You can't keep dwelling on the past." She offered softly. "You need to breathe a little."

Bruce gave a light chuckle, but didn't look up from his work. "Coming from you, that's actually quite rich." He mused. Bruce knew, better than anyone except maybe Clint Barton, that Natasha was notorious for holding onto things from her past—things that she should not hold on too at all.

"We're not talking about _me_." She pointed out, as she stepped around the steel slab to find herself within reach of Bruce Banner. "Besides, what happened in Colombia was not your fault." She added.

Bruce nodded, and gave a semi-visible knowing grin. "You're right, it was the _other guy's_ fault. But then again, he goes where I go so…"

Bruce laid down the tools he was holding in his hands, and wiped his brow with the sleeve of his button down shirt. In his mind he flashed back to the incident in Colombia, and the horrible outcome of said trip.

_Bruce and a young girl were huddled together in the front seat of a jeep-like vehicle. The pair bounced and skidded wildly over the rugged terrain as they tried desperately to escape their pursuers._

_In the small space on the seats between Bruce and the girl, there set a glass vial containing some sort of semi-processed pink liquid. Bruce unconsciously glanced down at it every so often just to make sure that it was okay._

_The viscous, pink liquid in the vial was a compound derived mainly from a special wildflower that only grew in one spot in all of Colombia (and as far as Bruce knew that was the only spot in the whole world as well). That same spot was where they had just left, barely escaping with their lives._

_Bruce had been treating the people of the young girls' small town/village for a mysterious new illness that seemed to only react to the compound he'd discovered from the wildflowers that grew near the mountainside just a few miles outside of the small town._

_Bruce had discovered, as well, the possibility that said compound might also hold a solution to his own problem, and had thereby taken the liberty of distilling another, more potent batch of the aforementioned serum._

"_Hang on!" Bruce yelled over the loud hum of the jeeps' engine, as he tore the vehicle around a sharp bend in the narrow hillside road. The girl, Gabriella, screamed something in her native tongue that Bruce did not quite understand, but then again he probably didn't need to._

_Gabriella had sort of been Bruce's assistant at the Clinic located near the center of the small town that he'd spent the last couple of months helping out in. The two had really kind of bounded, and had become good friends in just the short time in which they'd known each other. Gabriella also served as a translator for Bruce when he found himself in need of one._

_Not too far behind them rode a rugged band of almost mercenary-like men. All five of the men were clothed in raggedy, military style clothing and sported bandanas wrapped around their foreheads. From what Bruce had been able to gather early on each man also carried an assault rifle of some kind, and a small pistol and knife._

_The jeep skidded across a small muddy patch in the largely unpaved, dirt road, and Bruce held tight to the steering wheel as he tried to keep from going off of the road._

_Almost as soon as he had regained control of the vehicle a wave of gunfire soared just over the jeep's open top, and thereby just narrowly missed Bruce's head._

_Bruce mumbled something under his breath that sounded an awful lot like a swear word. "They're shooting at us now. That's not good—that's really not good." He commented aloud, his voice only slightly shaky._

_He swung the vehicle around the next little bend, and then quickly chose a new path from an oncoming fork in the road. A few seconds later the jeep had to pass under a rather low-hanging tree which had somewhat collapsed over the path. Bruce had to do some fancy maneuvering in order to fully clear the obstacle._

_Gabriella grunted in surprise, as she had to quickly duck her head down to one side to avoid having it taken completely off of her shoulders. She looked up at Bruce then, and jumbled words fell out of her mouth in a hurry as another volley of gunfire passed over them._

"_Sabe usted dónde vamos? Loosely translated, Gabriella's words amounted to something along the lines of _'Do you have any idea where you are going?'

_Bruce had to think for a moment before he could answer. He had also been using Gabriella as a means of learning some of the local dialect._

"_Uh, er, um…__No realmente. Estoy simplemente haciendo esto que voy." Bruce hoped that he had communicated correctly instead of butchering the language as he sometimes did when under stress like the kind he was currently under. Loosely translated, what Bruce was trying to say was something like _'Not really. I'm mostly just making this up as I go.'

_Gabriella then chanced a glance back over the top of her seat. She saw their pursuers clear the obstacle, and then rapidly gain speed and distance on the fleeing pair. "Ellos están recibiendo más cerca!" Gabriella spouted quickly in Bruce's direction._

_Bruce could see the same thing that Gabriella was seeing through his rear-view mirror, and he didn't really like the view. "I know. I know." He replied quickly._

_Bruce thought ahead quickly, and an idea soon popped into his head. "Gabriella, hang on tight. I'm gonna try and lose'em around this next corner." Bruce explained, hoping that she understood his English in her clearly frightened state._

_She nodded back._

_Bruce veered around the next bend, and braced for the maneuver he was preparing to try. That's when he realized it wouldn't work. The road suddenly gave way, obviously eroded away by rainfall over the vast, uneven terrain, and plunged straight down over the side of a very very steep hillside._

"_No, no, no, no, no!" Bruce exclaimed as the vehicle suddenly lunged into a wild skid. He tried desperately to correct the maneuver, and keep them from plunging over the side, but to no avail._

"_Gabriella!" Bruce cried out, as he threw himself sideways over the girl in the passenger's seat. The jeep hit the edge, and immediately toppled over the side. _

_The jeep bounced, and tumbled all the way down to the bottom of the steep hillside, until it finally came to rest upside down near a small creek-like river structure._

_Bruce and Gabriella were, for the most part, unharmed, with the exception of a few minor cuts and bruises between the two of them. Bruce took a moment to note his vitals, and at the same time began the ritual that he had developed some time ago to quickly calm himself down, and potentially avert danger of the big green kind._

_He was actually kind of surprised that he hadn't changed already. Maybe he was getting better at controlling the monster inside._

"_You alright?" Bruce asked finally, while still panting heavily against his seatbelt strap._

_Gabriella nodded silently as she quickly unfastened her own seatbelt, and then gently lowered herself to the ground below. She then looked back up at Bruce. "You come down?" _

"_Yeah." Bruce replied, as he looked around. "I guess—wait, where is it?" His eyes searched the ground beneath him frantically. "Where did it go!" the panic in his voice became increasingly audible._

_Gabriella seemed to read Bruce's thoughts, and she too began searching feverishly for the small, glass vial. "It not here, Bruce. It not here." She soon said._

_Bruce fumbled with the fasteners that held his seatbelt in place, as he struggled to get free of its grasp. "No, no it has to be here. It has to be!" _

_The sound of other vehicles screeching to a stop nearby reached their ears from the embankment above. Gabriella chanced a peek out from under their overturned jeep, and saw the five men exiting their own jeep at the top of the steep hill above them._

"_We must go." She told Bruce quietly. "We must go now." She insisted._

"_No!" Bruce hissed, as he finally managed to free himself from his restraint(s). "I won't leave without it." He told her. Then he and Gabriella clambered out from under the overturned vehicle and quietly brushed themselves off._

_Their pursuers were busy trying to find a safer route down to where Bruce and Gabriella currently were. Gabriella tried to make Bruce follow her further down the path away from the men with the guns, but Bruce would not have it._

_Then his eyes fell upon it, and as soon as they did his heart sank deep within his chest. The small, glass vial was lying near the water, cracked down one side, and its contents were steadily seeping into the flowing stream of water._

"_No, no." Bruce sobbed silently as he reached the container, and knelt on his knees beside it. He gently lifted the vial, and inspected it in his hands. By then there were only a few drops left inside the tiny container, and it was a sight that broke his heart._

All that time. All that work. All for nothing. _At first Bruce felt immensely saddened by the loss of what he had hoped would be the answer to his _Hulk_ problem. Then he began to feel anger towards the people responsible for said loss._

_Gabriella inched her way over to Bruce's side. "Bruce, you okay?" she asked softly. She could tell that he was clearly upset by the unplanned turn of events._

"_It's gone." Bruce hissed under his breath. "It's all gone." Bruce hissed again, this time even more vehemently than before._

"_Nobody move." Came a thick-accented voice from behind the squatting pair. "You two were caught trespassing on private property." The man explained as he audibly shifted his assault rifle in his hands. "The penalty for such action…is death."_

_The other four men standing nearby all shared in a group chuckle and snicker at their leaders' words. "Who's gonna be first?"_

_Neither Bruce, nor Gabriella answered the man. That made him angry as he stood watching the seemingly helpless pair. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"_

_By then, Bruce was visibly shaking on the spot. Then the vial he held in one hand seemed to shatter completely in two, as his grip around it tightened oh so fiercely. His anger at that point had built to a blind rage, and Gabriella had begun to back way from him—fear etching its way slowly across her features._

"_B-Bruce." She whispered._

_Bruce grunted through gritted teeth, and then his clothing began to stretch outward as his overall musculature expanded outward exponentially._

"_Hey, wha-what the hell's wrong with-" one of the five men stuttered as they watched Bruce Banner's startling transformation taking place right before their very eyes._

"_Hey, you there!-" the leader of the mercenaries called out to Bruce, but suddenly stopped short._

_Bruce growled angrily and arched his back as his body expanded, and ripped free of his already somewhat worn clothing. Then his hands clawed at the dirty ground, and he threw back his head, which then doubled in size and took on a green hue._

_Then Bruce finally lost control, and the Hulk took over. That was to be the last that Bruce remembered of his time in Colombia._

"You're thinking about her now, aren't you?" Natasha asked, breaking through Bruce's flashback.

A lone tear traced a path down Bruce's cheek. "I woke up a day later in Mexico City. That's where you guys found me." Bruce recalled, with a slight shake of his head. "I had Agent Roberts look into the incident reports from that day…the girl didn't make it."

"Bruce…" Natasha tried once again.

"If I'd just stayed away from those damn flowers." Bruce snapped. He slammed his fist down hard against the edge of the steel slab he was still leaning against.

"Bruce, please." Natasha said, as she took one of his hands into her own. "Join me for a drink, in my room." She offered.

Bruce let out a small sigh, and looked up at the redheaded super spy. "I—maybe—later." He said at last. "Just give me a few minutes, ya know, to get it together."

"Fine." She said, as she planted a gentle kiss against his forehead. "Just don't keep me waiting to long nerd boy." She said playfully, as she pulled away from him.

Bruce grinned. "I'll try not to, Red." Bruce said, calling her by the affectionate nickname that only he could use with her.

Later…

Some time had passed, and Bruce was finally headed up to Natasha Romanoff's private quarters. He was definitely in a better mood than he had been before, and it showed quite visibly in his step.

He finally arrived just outside her door, and immediately he heard multiple voices coming from the other side. He gave a light knock against the solid panel of the door, and within seconds it slid open.

Inside the room he saw Natasha and _Clint Barton_—to his surprise.

Bruce stood, nervously, looking into the room at the pair sitting next to each other laughing like old friends.

"Barton…when did you get back?" Bruce asked slowly and unsurely.

"Hey Doc," Barton exclaimed with a smile. "Pulled in about an hour ago, I guess." He explained. "Thought I'd stop and check on Nat, before calling it a night."

Natasha rolled her eyes at Clint's annoying shortening of her name. It was something she always expected from him, but she still found it somewhat annoying.

"Well, that's understandable." Bruce replied. "I think she's asked Fury about you almost every day since you left." Bruce recalled, trying to act as though he belonged there at that moment.

Clint looked from Bruce to Natasha, and then back again. "You two got something going on?" he asked.

"Bruce and I were just-" Natasha started.

"No, not really." Bruce cut in, running a hand through his hair. "I was just passing through, thought I'd say hi. Nothing serious." He said with a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, I should really be going now. Still have tons of work to finish for Fury, so better get to it I guess." Bruce explained, feigning a small smile for the both of them.

"Alright Doc, see ya later then." Clint said with a small wave of his hand.

Bruce did the same, but with a little less enthusiasm, as he turned and backed out of the room. Natasha stood up, and after a word to Clint stepped out of the room.

"Bruce!" she called down the long hallway after the disappointed scientist. "Bruce wait."

Bruce stopped and turned around to face her. "No, no its okay. I understand." He told her quietly. "You two have a lot of catching up to do, I get it." He added, feigning another small smile.

"No harm, no foul."

"Bruce, I'm so-"

"No, like I said, I get it." He told her once again, and then turned and headed off down the long hallway once again.

…TBC…

**Author's Note, Part Two: Check back often for more new updates to this and many of my other stories. Next time we'll see the tension between Bruce and the Impostor Clint Barton begin to rise to dangerous levels…**


	3. Small Light In The Dark

Bruce stepped once more into his state-of-the-art laboratory aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. Behind him the automatic doors closed with an audible hiss. Bruce heaved a dejected sigh as he stood in place looking around at all of the high tech equipment that littered his lab.

He shouldn't feel this way, and he scolded himself internally for it. Natasha Romanoff deserved so much more than what he had to offer at present. Besides that, where would the _other guy_ fit into a relationship with the redheaded beauty?

Bruce's eyes landed on a large piece of equipment stationed against a wall on the far side of the lab. The equipment was covered up by a huge, white tarp. His thoughts were held occupied by thoughts of what the dust-covered machine was capable of.

Then an idea popped into the brilliant scientists' head. He quickly removed his nice sports coat, and traded it for the long, white lab coat that hung on a nearby hook. Next, He crossed the room to a computer terminal that set just a few feet off to one side of the machine, and switched it on.

Within minutes he had the computer up and running, and several screens worth of data displayed across its monitor. A small grin seemed to play across his face as he read the information displayed on the terminal. It looked promising by all accounts.

"Theoretically, it _should_ work." He said to himself. He walked around the terminal and grabbed the large tarp that covered the machine, and gave it a hard yank. It fell easily to the ground, revealing the mysterious device that it had once concealed.

The machine stood at least four or five feet taller than Bruce, and was situated on a large circular platform. The machine had four, huge mechanical arms that each sported a satellite dish type relay at the ends. The four arms were attached, one per side and when activated would rotate upwards from the floor until they were aimed directly at their target.

Bruce Banner stood staring up at the machine. It had been quite some time since he'd last worked on it. Back then, Natasha had discovered what he was trying to do, and had stopped him. Then she'd made him promise to never, ever activate the device again.

She understood, of course, what the machine was for. She also understood that so many things could go wrong at the same time. In her mind, at the time, a 57% chance for success just wasn't good enough.

He would fix that though. He told himself that he could work on the device, which he'd dubbed the _Gamma Siphon_, during the night when everyone else aboard the Helicarrier was supposed to be asleep. That way no one else would know what he was up to—especially Natasha. If it turned out that the machine did work…then he would surprise her.

"I just need to reconcile a few variables," he murmured to himself. "And potentially…I could be free of _him_ forever." And it would all be for her.

* * *

Natasha sat down on the edge of her bed. She couldn't help but feel like she'd really hurt Bruce this time. Truth be told, the one thing in the world that she wanted more than anything else…was _him_. There was always something getting in the way it seemed.

"So," Clint spoke up from his seat near her work desk. "You and the Professor hunh?" he said, as he folded his hands behind his head. "Never would've guessed you had a thing for nerdy types."

Natasha shot her friend a dirty look. "Jealous?"

"Me? Not a chance." Clint replied plainly. "I just think its kind of funny is all." He added with a tiny smirk.

"You would." She threw back, as she rolled her eyes. She stood up then, unable to just forget about what Bruce. "You should try and play nice, now that you're back." She suggested.

"Why? The guy's a stiff. Way to uptight for my tastes."

Natasha spun on her heel to face Clint. She wore a disgusted look across her face. "He's not that way because he wants to be. He would give anything to be like us. Like you and me." Natasha explained.

"Whatever." Clint replied, with a small shrug. "Tell you what, this is obviously a bad time for you, and honestly I am kind of tired. Maybe I'll just go ahead and turn in for the night."

"Sure. Go ahead." Natasha said, with a wave of her hand. "We'll…catch up tomorrow I guess."

Clint stood up from where he'd been sitting, and walked out the door without another word. As he stepped out into the hallway, a small mysterious gleam seemed to enter his eye.

…TBC…


End file.
